{"slug": "cory-doctorow-on-using-ai-without-letting-ai-use-you", "title": "Cory Doctorow on using AI without letting AI use you", "summary": "Award-winning Canadian science-fiction author and tech activist Cory Doctorow argues in his new book 'The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life after AI' that people must be in charge of their technology, not the other way around. Doctorow, who regularly uses AI, outlines healthy ways to be assisted by tech rather than conscripted in service to it, focusing on the fallacy of inevitability and the need for people to have a say in how technological change manifests.", "body_md": "This week we’re speaking with friend of the pod, award-winning Canadian science-fiction author, journalist, and tech activist Cory Doctorow, who is back with a new book, “[The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life after AI](https://shop.craphound.com/).”\n\nWhat the hell is a reverse centaur? I’m not going to spoil that for you, but I will say Doctorow is keenly focused on the power dynamics of technology: as he says on the pod, what a gadget *does* is less important than who it does it *to*, and who it does it *for*.\n\n“I am\n\nCory DoctorowTron-pilled: I fight for the user. I want people to be in charge of their technology, not the other way around.”\n\nThat’s not an anti-technology take, by the way. Doctorow regularly uses AI, and his new book outlines healthy ways people can be assisted by the tech, rather than conscripted in service to it.\n\nWe talk about all of this, alongside the personal and macroeconomic pressures he sees fuelling unhealthy approaches to AI adoption. But this conversation is really about the fallacy of inevitability: less that technological change is coming, more that people have no say in how the change manifests.\n\n**Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RSS **\n\n‘Fighting for the user’ in this way is why we got Doctorow to share an essay in our 2026 * BetaKit Most Ambitious* issue on the\n\n[need to jailbreak Canada](https://betakit.com/digital-elbows-up/)so it can reclaim its digital sovereignty, which we also discuss on the backend end of the pod.\n\nCory Doctorow is many things, but as I said up top, he’s a tech activist—and he wants us all to take action before it’s too late.\n\nSo, what is a reverse centaur? And how should we think about AI before it’s too late? Let’s dig in.\n\n**PRESENTED BY**\n\n**The BetaKit Podcast is presented by **[MaRS Climate Impact 2026](https://bit.ly/4fWyTTA).\n\n[MaRS Climate Impact 2026](https://bit.ly/4fWyTTA).\n\nOn November 17 and 18, learn more about climate innovations engineered for scale and join founders, investors, policy-makers, researchers, and industry leaders for two days of breakthrough startup pitch sessions, curated networking opportunities, panel debates and live podcast recordings.\n\nRegister today, and meet the people accelerating the transition to a more resilient, low-carbon economy.\n\n[Secure your early bird tickets now](https://bit.ly/4fWyTTA)!\n\n*Recorded and edited by Toronto Podcasts.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/cory-doctorow-on-using-ai-without-letting-ai-use-you", "canonical_source": "https://betakit.com/cory-doctorow-ai-reverse-centaur-betakit-podcast/", "published_at": "2026-07-27 21:26:17+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-27 21:36:33.546685+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Cory Doctorow", "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life after AI", "BetaKit", "MaRS Climate Impact 2026"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/cory-doctorow-on-using-ai-without-letting-ai-use-you", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/cory-doctorow-on-using-ai-without-letting-ai-use-you.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/cory-doctorow-on-using-ai-without-letting-ai-use-you.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/cory-doctorow-on-using-ai-without-letting-ai-use-you.jsonld"}}